Planets In Play

 

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When I teach, or when I am reading a chart, theatre is the main metaphor that I use to explain the complexities inherent in archetypal astrology. I have found that using stage imagery as an analogy for our inner lives offers makes archetypal thinking accessible.

We are used to thinking about our selves as being “peopled” inside. We might say, “a part of me thniks this while another thinks that.” We have inner conversation where we can argue the pros and cons within ourselves. It is also common to refer to these inner characters as my inner child, lover, warrior and so on.

In archetypal astrology the planets become representations of such inner figures. Each one of them speaks through you in a distinct voice. For instance, Mars (the warrior) speaks when you are angry, Venus (the lover) when you are in love, and the Sun (the sovereign) speaks when you are asserting yourself. 

I have written about this and described each of these characters in my book Planets in Play

 

QuotationOpenWe do not live most of the time in exalted states.The content of our stream of consciousness is usually not so lofty. Our psychic life is more like a squabbling theatrical company trying to rehearse a play we don’t even know the name of.QuotationClose

— Charles Simic

 

QuotationOpenWe know that the wildest and most moving dramas are played not in the theatre but in the hearts of ordinary men and women who pass by without exciting attention, and who betray to the world nothing of the conflicts that rage within them except possibly by a nervous breakdown.QuotationClose

— C. G. Jung

 

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